Monday 3 April 2023
BBC News Hour (4/3/23)
Pro-war blogger Vladlen Tartarsky has been killed in a bomb blast in St. Petersburg.
• Darya Trepova has been detained on suspicion of being involved. She is an anti-war activist and a feminist. She is thought to be the woman in a video approaching the venue with a box.
• Trepova had been detained in the past along wither her husband at anti-war activities at the beginning of the war against Ukraine.
• Tartarsky’s blogs are important and followed by many in Russia who have little access to information about the war.
• Prigozhin (associate of Tartarsky) is commemorating Tartarsky with flags of Russia and the Wagner Group and claiming that Bakhmut has been taken (a goal of Wagner).
• Tartarsky (on tape) from the Kremlin September 2022 on the announcement of the annexation of four provinces in eastern Ukraine. “We’ll defeat everyone. We’ll kill everyone. Those who need to be robbed, will be robbed. It will be the way we like it.”
• He is considered a “war blogger.” He is a propaganda blogger. “He was extremely influential.” According to people who are journalists (Financial Times).
• These “war bloggers” (including Tartarsky) were at a ceremony last year at the Kremlin celebrating the annexation of the east provinces of Ukraine. They are allowed to be somewhat critical of the way the war has been conducted by the military.
• The Russian Interior Ministry posted the clip from an interview with Trepova where she admits that she brought the figurine (that exploded) into the room where Tartarsky was giving a lecture.
• These bloggers are also called “war correspondents.” Popular opinion is that they are more of a threat to the Kremlin than political people. They have fought on the front lines. They have access to guns.
• Tartarsky had previously been jailed. He escaped from jail and joined the pro-Russian militants.
BBC Global News Podcast: (4/3/23)
• Trepova is 26.
• Russia is calling it a “terrorist act.”
The Guardian
• Russian police maintain that Trepova is a supporter of Alexei Navalny.
• Police issued a statement maintaining the attack was “planned by the special services of Ukraine” in cooperation with those associated with the Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation.
• There is reporting that Trepova said she had been “used.” Her husband also said that she had been used.
• Ukrainians maintain that this is an attack planned internally in a dispute between pro-Kremlin groups.
• The location of the attack, Street Food Bar No.1, “has ties to…Yevgeny Prigozhin.”
• Tartarsky once called for a tribunal for the Russian military leadership who he described as “untrained idiots.”
• Prigozhin has said he would not blame Ukraine for the attack. The café previously belonged to him. He blamed “radicals not linked to a government.”
• Prigozhin has openly criticized top generals and the defense minister, Sergei Shoigu.
MSN
• Director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, Ivan Zhdanov, denied any involvement.
• “They have been trying to accuse of terrorism for a long time.” He stated.
• Zhdanov pointed to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB)
Other Notes
• Finland will soon be inducted into NATO
• Article about Prigozhin and Wagner https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64976080
Law, Power and Justice 